Asheboro slammed by HiToms

Asheboro slammed by HiToms

ASHEBORO — The playoff door is still open for the Asheboro Copperheads. It just closed a little bit more Wednesday night.

High Point-Thomasville’s Cody Brittain hit a grand slam in the second inning and Chase Cunningham silenced the Asheboro bats in a complete-game performance as the HiToms captured a key 5-1 Coastal Plain League win over the Copperheads at McCrary Park.

The loss leaves Asheboro one full game behind the HiToms for the final playoff spot in the West Division. If Columbia doesn’t win the second-half title and with it the final playoff spot from the West, it appears as if either the HiToms or Copperheads will earn that spot based on overall record. High Point-Thomasville is now 25-26 and Asheboro 24-27. The Copperheads have four games remaining, including a regular-season ending game with the HiToms at McCrary Park on Monday night. But Wednesday night’s loss also means High Point-Thomasville has won the season series between the two teams, giving them the first tie-breaker.

“We are going to have to go out and take one at a time and win all four games we have to play,” said Asheboro coach Keith Ritsche, who is winding down his first season as the Copperheads’ coach. “We messed up the last two times we played the HiToms. We just didn’t hit the ball well and they pitched well. We just haven’t hit the ball in stretches.”

The HiToms, who defeated Asheboro 2-1 Saturday night, are now 7-4 against the Copperheads on the season. The HiToms have a total of five games remaining this half. Because High Point-Thomasville played one more game than the Copperheads in the first half, the two teams will not play the same number of overall games.

Matthew Gorst started on the mound for the Copperheads (12-12 in the second half) and he sailed through the first inning, retiring the side in order on just seven pitches. But in the second, Austin Crutcher was hit by a pitch and after Gorst retired the next two hitters, Glenn Battson singled and Colby Keene walked to load the bases. Brittain, batting in the ninth spot in the order, then launched his fifth home run of the season, a high fly ball that hit off of the very top of the left-field wall for a 4-0 lead.

Brittain later singled in a run in the sixth inning to give him all five RBIs on the night for the HiToms.

Cunningham, a right-hander from Belmont, was 0-3 with a 5.18 ERA coming into the game, but he earned the complete game by scattering four hits with six strikeouts. Asheboro’s only run came in the third when Connor Justus doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground ball off the bat of Eric Ferguson. G.K. Young, J.D. Whetsel and Will Albertson had singles for the Copperheads.

“It was one big swing and that was all it took tonight,” Ritsche said. “Sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”